Friday, June 6, 2008

left the house at 8am, had a 9am appt. to get my car fixed (finally)

Get there at 8:50, they only have written down that I need my rotors machined, nothing about the door that won't lock. So they'll "Try and squeeze me in" An HOUR later they come tell me that it will be close to $300....WTH???!!!

the estimate on the phone was $85 to have the rotors machined, I have a 6yr, 60,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty for the door lock, right?? Well, the door lock isn't covered under warranty...it'll be $110 for the rotors and $85 for the door...um, NO You told me $85 for the rotors...oh, ok...it'll be $85 for the rotors and $85 for the door.

OK FINE, do the work.

Car's done after 2 1/2 HOURS of walking the kids around inside the dealership. They don't do loaner cars anymore b/c in the last year, 3 people have totalled the loaner cars...2 didn't even have insurance. Fine, we're done, I pay $165 and we leave.

Go to the bank for $20 so I can buy lunch...it's already noon and we're all starving and cranky. I call the dealership back and "Oh...it might be a module going out?? We'll have to make an appt, how's next Wed?" OMG! I have to go BACK to this godforsaken place w/ my poor kids for another 2 hours?!?! fine, wed. is fine...we'll go back wed. JUST FIX MY GODDAMNED DOOR! (btw the rotors work beautifully and I can now stop on a dime w/o feeling like the steering wheel is going to jump out of the car!)

So we go thru McDs...I ordered a #5 w/ GRILLED chicken & rootbeer, 2 cheeseburger happy meals w/ NO PICKLE, apple dippers and choc. milk for one...fries and white milk for the other. I pay, she gives me the wrong change (I should have kept it, she was rolling her eyes at me that I pointed it out to her when I was giving her back 60c!)...I get the food and I can feel the heat in both kids' bags...both had fries. I call the girl back to the window, hand her 1 thing of fries and ask for apple dippers...she gets them, as I'm sitting there, I realize it's a girl toy in the bag...so when she gets back, I ask for a boy toy....she goes to get them...I quickly glance in the other bags, the cheeseburgers have the receipts taped to the top denoting that they are without pickle...so I get the boy toy and pull up...shift to park so I can hand Lucas his food (he's in the 3rd row and I'd rather not try and throw it to him while driving, lol!)

We're all set and we go off to get Abby's birthcertificate in downtown Peoria. "MOOOMMMMmmmmm there's PICKLES!!!!!!" (said as if there were fried grasshoppers on the sandwich) OMG..."ok, fine I'm sorry, I asked for no pickles...you heard me ask?? yes, I asked... I'm sorry there are pickles, please pick them off and set them on the wrapper" catastrophe averted.

I reach into the bag for my fries...they're upside-down. nice. who the heck puts fries in the bag UPSIDE DOWN??? I'm sure you all know I worked in fast-food for 8 YEARS...NEVER once have I put a customer's food UPSIDE DOWN in their bag. UGH! fine, whatever...I eat the fries...they're cold by this point...but there's not much I can do about that. then "MMOOOOOMMMMMM I have Pickles TOO!!!"

UGH!!! Can anything else go wrong?? "please do NOT throw your pickles on teh floor of the car, set them in your napkin" ok...done w/ my fries, time to eat my sandwich! Guess what I got?? Yup, a FRIED chicken sandwich.

thanks McDonalds. You've officially ruined my day.

So I choke down my greasy nasty sandwich and we arrive without incident at the courthouse. I find a parking spot front and center, but upon closer inspection I realize that the meter only goes up to 30 minutes. I have to be fast...no problem, I can be fast! We race down the steps, the door to the clerk's office should be right there...the sign says "EXIT ONLY" Now mind you when I say we race down the steps, I mean I drug 2 boys and a stroller with a baby DOWN 15 stairs. Guess where we have to go now??

UP said stairs. YAY.

We stop and ask a friendly grandpa-looking man for directions, he *thinks* the door is down the building AROUND THE BLOCK. OY VEY! So we run down to the other door...of course it's the court house so we're all but strip-searched for bombs and illegal contraband...b/c you know those women w/ 3 kids, they're dangerous! We finally get in, there's not even a line! Things are looking up! I politely ask "I need a birthcertificate for my daughter please?" She has me fill out the form..."It'll be $13.50" I grab my check-book. "I'm sorry ma'am, we only accept cash" ....I'm just completely deflated. We were JUST at the bank. And our bank is 10+ MILES away. I had checked the county website this morning, it said nothing about *CASH ONLY* ...though I admittedly didn't look too hard. I give up.

So, we leave. it only took us 7 minutes...there was still 23 minutes left on the meter.

Monday, June 2, 2008

She has been moving and scooting both on her back and on her stomach & elbows now for quite some time. She can get wherever she wants in our house (aside from the gated stairs!) She loves playing with Lucy's food and water, apparently Iams makes a pretty tasty blend (BLECH!!) and water is always fun to splash in!! Her older brothers are Johnny-on-the-Spot though and keep the dog's dishes up on the counter when they see Abby approaching!!

In the past week or so, Abby has been getting up on her hands & knees and rocking...back and forth, back and forth, and then PLOP, she's back down on her belly doing the military crawl on her elbows! Here's her first hands & knees pic, and yes it's hot enough in Illinois in May to be nekkid!!

If you didn't already know, I will go ahead and tell you. I am a closet carseat safety NUT! I figure the most dangerous thing I do most days is strap my kids in a 2000 lb. weapon and go cruising, putting every last ounce of my trust into all the other drivers out on the road. Ok, I'm not really THAT paranoid...but I do try to keep my kids as safe as I can!

The current laws in Illinois are fairly strict, requiring a rear-facing carseat for infants up to 20lbs and a carseat for all kids under 80lbs and 4'9" (generally 8 years old). I have done some research and because my boys love NASCAR, we all know that the 5-point safety harness is the safest!

This is Isaac's new carseat. It is a Graco Nautilus and it will keep him harnessed until he reaches 65 lbs. or 57" (at which time he will be in a booster until I feel he's safe enough to sit in a regular car seat-belt) Isaac **LOVES** his new carseat!! He thinks it is very comfortable and he just loves laying his head on the little side-wings for a bit of shut-eye! Lucas is quickly outgrowing his carseat, so he will be getting a new carseat too, stay tuned!!

I am so sorry for not posting more! We've been busy!! I'll try and catch you up in a hurry! Isaac was in 1st grade, I say "was" because his last day was TODAY! He's now a "2nd grader" OMGosh! They did a little singing program back in May, it was about 1/2 an hour long, this is a picture from it. It's really hard to see him, as we were pretty much as far away as you could get! I need a new camera with a better zoom feature, but since that's not going to happen, this is the best I can do!

Isaac is the boy in the middle that's facing sideways! That's right, I didn't even get a decent face-shot of him!! All my long-distance shots are blurry :(

The entire program was a dialogue between the kids (divided into girls & boys) and the school's principal. It was about a naughty gingerbread man that thought he could run away from everyone, in the end a sly fox ate him for dinner! Poor gingerbread man!!